The Licence Itself · 7 min
Who is a guide, in law
Why this matters
Everything else follows from this one definition. People get it wrong in both directions: some run guided trips for years without a licence because 'it is just friends', and some buy a licence they never needed. The statute is short and it is worth knowing almost word for word, because the exam does test it and a warden will test it in a different way.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- State the ECL definition of a guide and the six activities it covers
- Apply the 'for hire' test, including what does not count as compensation
- Name the two exemptions from the licence requirement
Guiding in New York is licensed under Environmental Conservation Law §11-0533. Subdivision 1 gives the definition the whole scheme rests on:
the term "guide" shall mean a person who offers services for hire part or all of which includes directing, instructing or aiding another in fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, whitewater canoeing, rafting or rock and ice climbing.
Read it in three pieces, because that is how it is tested.
1. Offers services for hire
You do not have to be paid. You have to offer. The regulation defines for hire at 197.2(e):
providing or offering to provide services to the public at large for which compensation is demanded or received, directly or indirectly. Compensation does not include reimbursement of actual expenses for travel, meals and lodging.
Three things fall out of that sentence.
- "Directly or indirectly." A salary from an outfitter is indirect compensation. So is a free trip, a discounted rate, or a guiding fee bundled into a lodge package.
- "To the public at large." Taking your brother-in-law fishing is not offering services to the public. Advertising is.
- Actual expenses are not compensation. If four friends split the gas and the groceries and nobody profits, that is not hire. The moment there is a fee on top of costs, it is.
2. Directing, instructing or aiding another
"Part or all" is doing real work here. A trip does not have to be entirely guided. If any part of what you sell involves directing, instructing or aiding a client in one of the listed activities, you are guiding.
The counterweight is at 197.2(g): "Secondary assistance such as carrying and cooking are not considered guiding when carried out to assist a licensed guide." A camp cook or a packer working under a licensed guide does not need their own licence. The person making the decisions does.
3. One of the six activities
| Activity | Regulation |
|---|---|
| Fishing | 6 NYCRR 197.2, defined term by term |
| Hunting | |
| Camping | |
| Hiking | |
| Whitewater canoeing and rafting | |
| Rock and ice climbing |
Birdwatching, foraging, photography, snowmobiling and horseback riding are not on that list. Guide them and you are outside the licence scheme entirely, unless the trip also involves camping or hiking as defined, which most multi-day trips do.
The two exemptions
Public vessels for hire. ECL 11-0533(2) exempts anyone operating or assisting on a passenger-carrying vessel licensed by the United States Coast Guard or New York State on the Atlantic Ocean and other marine and coastal waters, tidal waters including the Hudson River up to the Troy Barrier Dam, the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes and the navigable portions of their tributaries. This is the charter-captain exemption: a six-pack captain running Lake Ontario salmon trips is regulated by the Coast Guard, not by the guide licence.
Children's camps. Employees of children's camps as defined in Public Health Law §1400 are exempt, provided the activity is within the scope of that employment.
Note what subdivision 3 adds: except while guiding for hunting or fishing, no sporting licence under §11-0701 is required for these acts. A hiking or camping guide does not need a hunting licence. A hunting or fishing guide does.
From the field
A lodge in Old Forge pays you a flat weekly wage to take guests out on day hikes. Guests pay the lodge, never you. Do you need a guide licence? Yes. The compensation is indirect, the lodge offers the service to the public at large, and hiking is one of the six activities. Being an employee changes nothing.
This lesson is part of the NYS Licensed Guide Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.